United States v. Juan Valenzuela-Sanchez

MEMORANDUM

Juan Manuel Valenzuela-Sanchez (Valenzuela) appeals his conviction under 8 U.S.C. § 1326 for illegal reentry. He challenges the admission of the statement he gave to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during a 2011 interview because he was not given a Miranda warning beforehand. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

The district court did "not err in admitting Valenzuela’s statement at trial. Valenzuela contends that non-Mirandized statements during custodial immigration questioning must be categorically excluded. We disagree. Valenzuela cites no authority generally requiring such warnings; nor can we find any such authority. Furthermore, such a rule would assume that every person detained and questioned by an immigration agent intends to commit an immigration-related crime in the future. This assumption runs counter to the fact-specific inquiry required for determining whether a Miranda warning is necessary: whether “under all the circumstances involved in a given case, the questions are ‘reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect.’” United States v. Booth, 669 F.2d 1231, 1237 (9th Cir. 1981)…